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McDonald's is losing its low-income customers

latimes.com

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Re: McDonald's is losing its low-income customers

#181

Post by ta12653421 »

ta12653421 wrote: post #178
doubled112 wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

About $5 bucks per skinless boneless chicken breast where I'm at in Canada. That's $20 in just the chicken for a meal if you happen to have a family of four. I swear my growing boys have hollow legs. How do you eat more than I do?

Thas fucking cheap! LOL Chicken well raised and fed, is usually good starting at around 30-40 EUR / kg. I supermarkets selling 1kg of chicken for 4-5 EUR / kg - I would not touch this.

The one who downvoted me obviously has a problem with high quality food.

Animals held and then sold for 4-5 EUR per kg is pure shit. Period. I would rather eat groceries instead.

Most people have no idea what high quality meet is because they buy their stuff always at large chains - remember: None of the sustainability-interested local farms sells to any of those supermarkt chains. You have to GO there to get your stuff.

Such animals you can also eat without having remorse.

Re: McDonald's is losing its low-income customers

#182

Post by skinnymuch »

jameslk wrote: post #22
nawgz wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Companies cannot set prices arbitrarily [Source required] Edit: how are you downvoting me? Go look at corporate profit margins now, 10 years ago, and 40 years ago. If you believe you can hand wave with simplified BS like "Supply and Demand" you probably have some heavy reading on price elasticity to catch up on.

[flagged]

Then why are profit margins bigger? Supply and demand as the reason for profit percentage increasing margin makes no sense. I’d be interested in how you’d debate that.

Re: McDonald's is losing its low-income customers

#183

Post by skinnymuch »

Barrin92 wrote: post #8
barbazoo wrote: post #2

> “Happy Meals at McDonald’s are prohibitively expensive for some people, because there’s been so much inflation,” Josephson said. I find the phrasing odd. It is because corporations have raised prices that inflation has increased. Rising prices aren't a result of inflation.

No, inflation is a monetary and political phenomenon. Companies cannot set prices arbitrarily, in particular not the fast food industry which faces what is probably the strongest competition on the planet. The entire restaurant industry does not collude on the prices of burgers. In this particular case it's wage-push inflation. The lowest quintile of workers has seen very strong wage gains among other reasons because…

You’re repeating generic right wing-ish talking points. Yet profit margins have increased. If your reasoning was correct, profit margins wouldn’t be increasing as they are.

Re: McDonald's is losing its low-income customers

#184

Post by mmooss »

purplezooey wrote: post #134

Awkward writing in this article. "McDonald’s executives say the higher costs of restaurant essentials, such as beef and salaries, have pushed food prices up..." Beef and... salaries? I think I found the name of my new fast food place.

What is awkward about it?

Re: McDonald's is losing its low-income customers

#186

Post by stefanfisk »

Freedom2 wrote: post #133
esseph wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems to be exactly the same quality at least here in the US, that it has always been.

In some ways the rest of the world's McDonald's are simply plummeting to the low quality of those in the US.

Here in Sweden they changed their recipes a few years ago. I can’t stand the Big Mac now. Previously it at least felt kind of fresh although low quality. Now it has a weird freeze dried sensation to the vegetables :/

Re: McDonald's is losing its low-income customers

#187

Post by goku12 »

silisili wrote: post #162
FerretFred wrote: post #21

I can only speak for the UK but for quite a while now, McD's has become an uninviting experience, with miserable staff, menu screens that visibly tell you to hurry the f*k up and choose the product. Not to mention customers vying with delivery drivers for orders. I think the problem applies to all-income customers.

At least from my perspective, COVID broke everything. People are more awful, quality is more awful, and prices are way up. I dread even eating out anymore as I fully expect to overpay for bad food and service. There's an argument to be made that inflation is ultimately the driver of all three complaints, but boy did that all happen seemingly overnight.

> I dread even eating out anymore as I fully expect to overpay for bad food and service.

I don't know if HN is the place to say this. But, it's just infinitely better these days to cook your own meals. With some modest initial investment and planning, you can minimize the average time and cost of doing it, while still having access to a reasonaly healthy and delicious menu, though slightly repetitive. But if you really want to indulge, setting aside a couple of hours will give you dishes that taste way beyond anything you can afford from outside.

Some people are natural born chefs with an intuitive understanding of tastebuds. But if you're like me in that you're clueless about it, there are still some exceptional recipes you can steal online. I treat cooking more like chemistry, insisting follow exact measurements and time. It still works out really well for me. You might even tweak the recipe over 4 or 5 repetitions to your at most satisfaction. Anybody who hasn't given it a try really should, at least once.

Re: McDonald's is losing its low-income customers

#188

Post by phil21 »

f1shy wrote: post #48
notepad0x90 wrote: post #6

Perhaps this is a good thing? Are people eating healthier home-made foods now?

I do not think this is exactly true. People may stop eating junk outside. But having a healthy balanced diet is more expensive than buying junk and eating at home; and not only in money, but more importantly (maybe) in time. Cooking takes time and effort, which families with both working parents may struggle with. Please do not forget often those people have more exhausting and abusive jobs. I know from first hand, h…

More expensive? Absolutely not. Never has been and is unlikely to ever be true.

More difficult? Time consuming? Requires practice? Yes. Usually overblown though on all fronts, considering the types of families that seem to find ways to make cheap meals compared to those that do not in my experience.

Fast food (and prepared/junk foods) are low friction and convenient. Cheap is not a metric they compete within.

Re: McDonald's is losing its low-income customers

#189

Post by phil21 »

badc0ffee wrote: post #156
somenameforme wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that people don't know how to cook. Something like pressure cookers (or crock pots where appropriate) are amazing for this sort of scenario. There are endless recipes you can find online that are toss a few ingredients in, wait, eat. Easy clean up, and delicious. I increasingly think cooking should be a part of basic education for everybody. Stuff like rice, beans, and chicken breast are extremely chea…

I agree with most of what you're saying, but here in Canada, chicken breast is so not cheap.

Costco has been 2.99/lb for chicken breast about as long as I can remember now here in Chicago. It’s only sometimes better priced than the local supermarket, but the quality is consistent and price stable.

If I have spare time on a weekend it can be picked up far cheaper in bulk from a food services supply store. 2 weeks ago when I last walked through the cooler section it was sitting at $1.29/lb in 40lb cases. Costs maybe 10 cents per food saver vacuum bag or so to freeze them in packs of 2-4 each.

A lot of folks are price takers and have forgotten how to comparison shop or buy on sale and stock up. These were skills lost over the past few generations - likely since stores thought they were competing on price far more than they actually are. Covid taught them the average consumer simply isn’t as price sensitive as the business classes teach you, and have engaged in aggressive price segmentation.

I don’t bother buying most shelf stable or freezable products these days unless it’s on a very large sale - which I’ve found tends to happen roughly quarterly for most things. Beef is the current exception, but we buy a half cow from a local farm and eat off that for a year or more.

Re: McDonald's is losing its low-income customers

#190

Post by lewiscollard »

FerretFred wrote: post #21

I can only speak for the UK but for quite a while now, McD's has become an uninviting experience, with miserable staff, menu screens that visibly tell you to hurry the f*k up and choose the product. Not to mention customers vying with delivery drivers for orders. I think the problem applies to all-income customers.

From the UK too, and your experience is matched by mine. The last time I was in one (I mean "the last time" in both senses of the words) I waited over 20 minutes for my food; I do not know how long it would have actually taken because at that point I got bored, wrote it off as a loss and walked out. No sense in complaining to anyone because that would have consumed even more of my time.

McDonalds is not food and it is not even fast anymore.

I cannot blame their staff for any of this anyway; if I was being paid that little to be treated like garbage I wouldn't give a shit either.

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